President Trump, headed to Florida on Friday, is pushing anew for states and companies to continue reopening.
Photo: Evan Vucci/Associated PressThe shape the Trump campaign wanted voters focused on at this point in the summer was a bright, giant “V,” not the spiky, biological likeness of the coronavirus.
But that isn’t how things have worked out in recent days.
That V was to represent the shape of the economic recovery from the coronavirus shock. And for a time this summer, it has appeared that V-shaped recovery was taking shape. Indeed, Thursday brought a bit of additional good news: a government report showing new applications for jobless benefits edged down last week.
But the coronavirus, this time surging across Republican-friendly states of the South and West, now has returned as a potential economic spoiler and the biggest factor in the political equation, campaign aides on both sides agree. The number of U.S. cases, which took 43 days to reach two million, passed three million this week after just 28 days.
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President Trump has complained repeatedly that the number of confirmed cases has risen so rapidly because the U.S. is testing extensively for the virus, and therefore finding more cases. And the U.S. does lead the world in the number of Covid-19 tests, according to Johns Hopkins University’s Coronavirus Resource Center.
But on a per capita basis, U.S. testing is below such countries as Australia and Singapore. More troubling are data showing a rise in the share of those who test positive in newly besieged states. By week’s end, 34 states averaged above the recommended 5% positive rate over the previous seven days.
Aside from the public-health implications, early signs indicate the rise in infections may be slowing economic recovery. Data from Homebase, a firm that provides support for small businesses, show the number of small businesses that are closed ticked up to 21.9% on Tuesday from 20.6% on June 30, after a stretch in which the share of firms open for business had been rising. United Airlines, meantime, said it might furlough almost half its workforce. And long-term Treasury yields fell Friday to their lowest levels since lockdowns started loosening, as investors sought safe assets.
Mr. Trump has responded by continuing to present himself as the leader who won’t let the country be paralyzed by the pandemic. He pushed anew for states and companies to continue reopening, and began a new round of pressure on schools to reopen in the fall.
For his part, presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Bidenunveiled a $700 billion plan to pull the American economy out of the coronavirus slump. It included some Trump-like provisions to encourage buying American goods and using government power to ramp up American manufacturing.
Write to Gerald F. Seib at jerry.seib@wsj.com
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